At least two of them had intimated before the evening was over that they would be willing to play a very different role in his life when their husbands were otherwise engaged.

Another tried determinedly to enlist his help in promoting a young man with whom she declared herself hopelessly and crazily in love.

‘All together it was an enjoyable evening,’ Richard told himself when he returned to his lodgings, ‘but extremely unfruitful from Vargus’s point of view.’

He needed a vast amount of self-control to prevent himself from asking the Earl if he intended to further his acquaintance with Genevieve.

He knew if there was one thing his friend really disliked it was being cross-questioned about the women in his life.

Richard himself admired Genevieve so much that he could not believe that the Earl would be any less enthusiastic than he was and would not take the opportunity of capturing her before he found that he had other rivals.

At the same time the Earl was always unpredictable and Richard would have thought him even more so if he had known where he was going at this moment.

*

The Earl drove his phaeton to Bond Street and, when he was some doors away from where he knew that Mrs. Burton had her shop, he drew his horses to a standstill.

“Walk them, Henry,” he said to his groom and he then proceeded to stroll leisurely down the street.

Thinking over his encounter yesterday with the French ballet dancer, he had come to the conclusion that he was more interested in the little milliner.

He found himself remembering not only the musical quality of her voice but also the flash of anger that had appeared in her eyes when he had tipped her with the guinea.

It was certainly unexpected and that it had happened intrigued him.

He also remembered the faint suspicion of dimples and the twinkle in her downcast eyes when something amused her.

He might be mistaken, he might easily be disappointed, but he had the feeling that he would like to see her again.

However, for the moment he was not quite certain how to go about it.

He knew where she worked because Mrs. Burton’s name was inscribed on the bonnet boxes that she had carried from the room when she left without bidding anyone goodbye.

The Earl was sure that the reason her departure had been so precipitate was the fact that he had given her a guinea.

He had expended a great many more guineas on Genevieve and when he and Richard had left and she had thanked him even more profusely the second time, he had found her methods too obvious to be intriguing.

What was more, the blatant way she displayed her body robbed her of the mystery that the Earl liked to find in the women he fancied.